After making sure the coast was clear after the HANE went off, Umbrella sent one of their delivery helicopters out. After finding a good place, they dropped a large pod down before flying off.
The pod broke open upon landing. Out of the smoke came a tall, imposing figure, roughly 10ft tall and clad in a wrap-around black trenchcoat with black heavy boots and fingerless gloves. The figure's face was like a skull made of flesh with peeled lips showing its bared snarling teeth. The brute then looked around before seeing the Takagi Estate in the distance and his single eye glared before he began making a heavy focused pace toward its destination...
"System restart, switching to core functions."
Ben stirred from the black abyss he had fallen into. He was beginning to feel more of himself, movement returning to his body.
"Ben, are you okay?!" He heard Double-D's voice as his vision returned to him, seeing The Eds and Saeko all watching over him, fraught with worry.
"I...I think I'm fine..."
Ben began to pick himself up. His whole body felt like lead but he pressed on as his friends helped him to his feet.
"What in the world happened?" Double-D asked.
"The EMP...it...messed up my suit." Ben said, struggling to find his voice as he took time to regain his strength. "I need to contact my folks."
Ben's codex was a bit scrambled, but eventually, it managed to restore itself, revealing his father and mother's worried faces.
"Ben! We lost contact! Are you okay?!" Gerald called out.
"I'm fine, Dad. Hurt like a bitch, but I'll live."
"Oh thank god..." Kimiko sighed. "The good news is, it was just one nuke that went off. Another three were taken down en route but the Curtis Wilbur was responsible for the one that got through. Radar shows it's there, but radio transmissions got no response. The Wilbur is assumed lost."
"Either someone on board was infected and it took the whole ship...or Umbrella had one of its spies take everyone out." Gerald added.
"Any word from Tokyo?"
"Not yet but scouting teams are making their way there. You and your mother let me worry about Tokyo, you worry about Tokonosu." Gerald said. "You're the only asset in that region. Pigeons for forty miles around ground zero are down and I don't have that many in storage."
"So, rally point has changed to right here then?"
"Confirmed."
"Any support?"
"We saved most of the air assets, I'll keep a 'hog' on standby if you need it. JSDF assets are scattered but their leadership is coming here so I might be able to divert some more assets soon."
"The Takagi's men could use a resupply. Medical supplies for the most part. The manor generators survived and the teams at the power plant are working to restore the power grid."
"I'd like to speak up," Double-D said. "Three of the refugees had pacemakers that shorted out when the EMP hit. Luckily we were able to get them in stable condition."
"Get us a list and I'll see what I can send," Kimiko said. "We may be able to divert medivac to the Tokonosu Hospital. JSDF forces are holding there."
"Guess we lucked out, huh?" Ben chuckled.
"We did. The fact that we're restoring operations instead of evacuating a fallout radius is more than I could have hoped for. But son, your mother and I would trade it all in a heartbeat. Knowing you're alive and safe is more important to us."
"I love you guys."
"We love you too. And we promise...the suit will be fully explained."
Ben hung up and turned to his friends.
"What's been going on since I was out?"
"Saya is with her old man working on how to restore the electronics that were screwed up," Eddy said. "After that, we're planning on splitting to find everyone else's families, especially Rei and Takashi's."
"Good. I think the suits stopped acting up, I'll be okay now."
Saeko put a hand on Ben's shoulder, a gentle look in her eyes as he gave her a reassuring look, his helmet unfolding so that they could see each other properly.
"Don't worry, I won't scare you like that again."
"Everyone, we have trouble coming our way!" One of the Takagi guards exclaimed as he ran over.
"What seems to be the issue?" Double-D asked.
"There's a large figure heading our way. It's not human but it's not a zombie either!"
"Whatever way you slice it, it's still not a friendly." Tank said as he came over, decked out with an M1927, an RPK, and a pair of M1911s.
"He is huge!" Ed said as the mysterious behemoth was getting closer.
"Ed, you still have those weapons Vaas gave you?"
Ed saluted and reached into his jacket to pull out El Pequeno and handed La Varita to Double-D and El Muro to Eddy.
Saeko readied her sword and nodded to Ben as he readied his own guns. The group leaped down to join the Takagi Men as well as Tank in holding off the approaching monster. However, all bullets that were fired at it were shrugged off.
"This guy's made of freaking iron!" Eddy cursed.
"Survivors...Must...DIE!" The creature roared as he pulled his fist back, tendrils bursting from his wrist as he prepared to slam it down on the closest guard, only for Tank to tackle him out of the way just in time.
"FIRE! FIRE!" Tank cried to those of the Takagi soldiers who could still shoot as they opened fire, but the creature reached a compartment on its back and pulled a piece off...which unfolded to reveal an honest-to-god laser-pointed rocket launcher.
"DUCK AND COVER, PEOPLE!" Double-D warned out as the beast opened fire, a rocket sailing ahead and exploding, scattering debris around.
"What the hell is going on?!" Saya shouted as the rest of the Fujimi Gang came out to see the chaos. Souchiro narrowed his eyes when he saw the pin on the creature's coat.
"So...Umbrella really is behind this..."
"Oy, Dempsey! Save some for me!" Nikolai said as he jumped down, taking out his Olympia and pumping shells into the creature, who fired another rocket which the Russian Soldier leaped out of the way of, but the shockwave knocked him off his feet.
"Whatever this guy is, he's smart enough to talk and use weapons!" Eddy said as he ran around while using the shield of El Muro to keep guard while taking shots with the hand cannon.
"Rolf shall assist you with slaying this beast, Ed-Boys!" Rolf shouted as he leaped in, hatchet in hand, and wedged it into the creature's shoulder, who simply stared at it unimpressed before grabbing it with Rolf still holding on and yanking it out before throwing it and him away.
"ROLF!" Kohta cried as he tried sniping the beast, Saeko rushing in and slashing at it as he tried to smash her with his fists.
"This guy is built like a tank, hits like one, and even SHOOTS like one! What can we do?!" Takashi cursed.
"Everyone, we must stand our ground! If not, one of the few safe havens we have left will fall!" Souchiro commanded.
"Easier said than done, Chief!" Tank said as he tried shooting the beast in the head, but all that did was irritate him.
"DROP YOUR WEAPONS, YOU SAVAGES!"
Everyone paused to see the woman who had been stirring up trouble earlier as well as her group of refugees. Even the beast stopped his assault as everyone turned to see the group.
"Oh great, this bitch..." Saya grumbled.
"You corrupt elite pigs in the government spread your killer pandemic to try and control us. Well, no more! We won't be controlled anymore. Not by you or anyone!" The woman snapped. "And look at this, you're attacking this person who's clearly ill and in need of help! All of you should be-!"
The woman was suddenly grabbed by a tendril wrapping around her neck and pulling her to the beast, who gripped her tightly as he brought her to his face, snarling coldly.
"You...are weak...Undeserving...of the new world order..."
The beast then held out his free hand as the woman opened and closed her mouth, the truth of reality hitting her in the face before a tendril burst from the creature's palm and going down her throat. The woman thrashed as the creature forced something inside her.
Suddenly, much to everyone's horror, the woman's body began to bloat and sag, deforming into some hideous malformed thing that couldn't be called 'human' anymore. She was now some horribly obese humanoid creature with large flesh folds and clawed hands, a dislocated jaw, and glazed eyes.
The rest of the protesting refugees stared in horror as the monster then released a large light blue gas that caused them to all cough and sputter before thrashing in agony. When all was said and done, they were nothing more than zombies.
"That is SO not right!" Eddy shouted, holding in his bile.
"Well, at least we can have an excuse to kill 'em!" Tank grinned as he turned and opened fire on the new zombies.
Souchiro and his men went after the mutated woman, being sure not to breathe in her zombie gas as they eradicated her easily. Despite how big, bloated, and bulky she was now, it was easy to kill her.
The big humanoid creature didn't seem perturbed. Instead, he reached into the compartment on his back and pulled off another piece, turning it into a minigun that he opened fire on.
"YIKES!" Kohta cried as everyone got behind cover from the rapid barrage of bullets.
"This guy is seriously pissing me off!" Saya cursed.
"Yeah! He's dishing everything we can take out!" Morita said, firing with El Susurro, which he considered a big improvement over the old nail gun Kohta originally made.
"We need to swarm him on all sides. I'll start things off!" Ben said as he rushed toward the beast, who snarled and reared its fist back.
"NEMESIS...EXTERMINATE!"
"So, your name is Nemesis, huh? Pretty cool name!" Ben smirked as his helmet formed over his head and met the behemoth's punch with his own, the suit managing to hold up against the impact.
However, tendrils burst out of Nemesis' wrist and wrapped around Ben's arm, which he then used to swing the nanosuit-clad warrior into a nearby car. As Ben recovered, Nemesis fired with his rocket launcher again, Ben getting out of the way as the car was obliterated.
"MY CAR!" Some random sap cried out in despair.
Ben quickly cloaked himself, hoping to confuse Nemesis. However, the beast was quite smart and seemed to sense his heat, as he kept his sights on him at all times.
"WE ARE COMING, FRIEND!" Ed shouted as he pounced on Nemesis and began wailing on him with his bare hands only for the brute to grab him and throw him away.
"ED!" Toshimi and Misuzu shrieked in concern.
Rolf's hatchet flew through the air and wedged in the back of Nemesis' skull but that only seemed to mildly disorient the beast, who ripped the weapon out and looked at it before Rolf pounced and began stabbing him with a hunting knife.
Saeko rushed in as Nemesis tried to shake Rolf off, slashing the monster with her sword. Everyone else provided supporting fire as Nemesis flailed around, trying to take them down with his minigun and rocket launcher, only for Ben to jump in, uncloak, and take out a special mine his suit produced, sticking it to the rocket launcher.
"BOOM!"
The mine was a spiked sticky and it exploded, destroying Nemesis' launcher and making him stumble as the flames burned off a bit of his coat. Takashi then took out La Clavadora and, with some begrudging help from Tsunoda, fired a spear straight through Nemesis' chest.
The brute stumbled back, looking at the spear in his chest before aiming his still-functioning chaingun, only for Rolf to drop and wrangle it from his arm.
"The beast is weaponless! Unleash your fury, comrades! Like Nana when she is disciplining Nano for being feisty toward the young ladies!"
Morita had taken command of La Sorpresa and fired an explosive sniper round into Nemesis, the explosion making him stumble back as Takashi and Kohta looked for something that could potentially take down the brute for good.
"Hey, kids! Catch!" Tank said as some of the Takagi soldiers had snagged some RPGs from the armory for this emergency.
The two boys caught the weapons, Kohta taking a moment to admire the beautiful launcher before he took aim and, with bated breath, fired.
Nemesis barely had time to react as the first rocket impacted against him, tearing apart some of his coat and making him stumble back, fire engulfing him.
"Alright, time to kill this son of a bitch!" Ben said as Saeko rushed to join him along with Ed and Rolf.
"Careful, you four!" Double-D called out.
Nemesis fell to one knee as Ben leaped and took out another spiked mine, which he stabbed into its face. Saeko slashed him a few times with her sword while Ed opened fire with both Nemesis' own minigun and El Pequeno, howling like Rambo all the while.
Rolf had managed to reclaim his hatchet and slammed it into Nemesis' back as Ben fired a few rounds from his Desert Eagle into the behemoth, who roared in pain as he tried to shake him off while taking off the sticky mine.
BOOM!
Sadly, the sticky mine went off, sending Nemesis flying back, his face badly bloodied and burned. As he struggled to get up, Nemesis slowly reached into his coat and pulled out some kind of trigger, which he squeezed with his hand as some kind of frequency emitted from it.
"What's he doing?" Eddy asked, getting on guard.
Suddenly, Ben's suit HUD showed him a 3D image of the surrounding area about 300 meters. A red dome came from Nemesis and then it spread from it to the rest of the area.
"Warning! Warning! Massive T-Virus outbreak imminent."
"That son of a bitch just rang the goddamn dinner bell for every nearby zombie in the area!" Ben alerted.
Everyone saw that many infected were flooding the area because of what Nemesis did. Numbering somewhere in the 100s maybe in the 1000s.
"Shit! Everyone run!" Takashi yelled as loud as he could.
"Pull back! Pull back!" Tank ordered.
"All...will evolve...or die..." Nemesis said.
"Suggesting counter-measure. Activate AVP: Anti-Virus Pulse."
Ben had no idea what that was but he'd go with it.
"Activate AVP!"
"Activating AVP. Stand-by. 25%... 50%... 75%... 100%. Activating AVP."
Ben felt the power build-up, and from afar, everyone else saw a white-colored energy, or particles surround him before he unleashed a massive pulse that spread in a dome-like fashion and everything infected that it touched, it destroyed.
Nemesis roared in agony as his body was torn apart by the energy and all the lesser infected were reduced to ash in an instant. The AVP dome covered about a 3-mile radius, snuffing out every single infected in the area.
"WHOOOOO! THAT WAS AWESOME!" Eddy cheered.
"KID!" Tank cried.
Everyone soon noticed that Ben had fallen on his back, seemingly lifeless. Saeko covered her mouth and ran to his side.
"BEN! WAKE UP!"
"Activate defibrillator." The suit said as a jolt coursed through Ben's body but nothing happened. "Activate defibrillator."
Ben's vitals were still flat-lining as the suit jolted him again. The whole Fujimi Squad gathered around him, trying to find some way to help him.
"Activate defibrillator." Another jolt hit Ben's heart and as if the Gods were smiling, he began to move and breathe again.
"Ben! Are you alright, man?!" Imamura asked.
"Do...I look alright to you?" Ben coughed out weakly.
As he was helped up, Ben turned to see Saeko and the boiling emotion behind her eyes. She suddenly wrapped her arms around him in a firm hug, which he returned.
Unbeknownst to everyone, as they were relaxing from the grueling battle and near-death experience, a lumpy parasitical larvae where Nemesis had once stood began slithering away, having just barely survived the AVP and was now making its way to a safe place to rejuvenate...and take revenge.
We had a battle with Nemesis and like any good nemesis, he will return! Hope you liked the action in this chapter!